The Owingup Swamp and Boat Harbour Wetlands Important Bird Area is a 442 ha site comprising Owingup Swamp, and ten other, smaller, wetlands nearby, in the Great Southern region of south-western Australia. It lies about 25 km south-south-west of Denmark, Western Australia, near the track to the coast at Boat Harbour cove. The site has been identified by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...

as an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

(IBA) because it is supports small numbers of the endangered

Australasian bittern The Australasian bittern (''Botaurus poiciloptilus''), also known as the brown bittern or matuku hūrepo, and also nicknamed the "bunyip bird", is a large bird in the heron family Ardeidae. A secretive bird with a distinctive booming call, it is ...

Description

The shallow wetlands are permanent or near-permanent, cycling through seasonal changes in

salinity Salinity () is the saltiness or amount of salt dissolved in a body of water, called saline water (see also soil salinity). It is usually measured in g/L or g/kg (grams of salt per liter/kilogram of water; the latter is dimensionless and equal ...

from

freshwater Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the term specifically excludes seawater and brackish water, it does include ...

in winter and spring to brackish in summer and autumn. They provide habitat for the bitterns in the form of sedgelands dominated by '' Baumea articulata'' or ''

Gahnia trifida ''Gahnia trifida'', the coastal saw-sedge, is a tussock-forming perennial in the family Cyperaceae, endemic to southern Australia. A herb, sedge or grass-like, with very rough leaf margins and underside. The species grows in dense tussocks, 1. ...

'', but also have heathland,

shrubland Shrubland, scrubland, scrub, brush, or bush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally or be the result of human activity. It m ...

and forest

communities A community is a Level of analysis, social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place (geography), place, Norm (social), norms, religion, values, Convention (norm), customs, or Identity (social science), identity. Communiti ...

. The site is largely contained by the Owingup Nature Reserve and has a Mediterranean climate with wet winters and dry summers.BirdLife International. (2011). Important Bird Areas factsheet: Owingup Swamp and Boat Harbour Wetlands. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 13/09/2011.

Flora and fauna

Over fifty species of plants, over forty species of

macroinvertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate s ...

s, and at least eight species of fish have been recorded in the area. The swamp supports the largest remaining mature stand of juniper myrtle (''

Taxandria juniperina ''Taxandria juniperina'' commonly known as wattie, native cedar, Warren River cedar or juniper myrtle is a species of tree that grows in the south west corner of Western Australia. This plant was previously classified as ''Agonis juniperina'' bu ...

'') forest and a nearby wetland holds one of the largest known populations of the nationally threatened tall donkey orchid, '' Diuris drummondii''. The swamp system is a nursery area for freshwater and

estuarine An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environment ...

fishes.

Birds

With the bitterns, some forty waterbird species have been recorded at the swamp, with another five in the surrounding wetlands. Of these, ten species breed in the area, including

blue-billed duck The blue-billed duck (''Oxyura australis'') is a small Australian stiff-tailed duck, with both the male and female growing to a length of 40 cm (16 in). The male has a slate-blue bill which changes to bright-blue during the breeding sea ...

s. Long-toed stints and Eurasian coots are known to use the swamp. Other birds include

western rosella The western rosella (''Platycercus icterotis''), or moyadong, is a species of parrot endemic to southwestern Australia. The head and underparts are bright red, and the back is mottled black; a yellow patch at the cheek distinguishes it from oth ...

western thornbill The western thornbill (''Acanthiza inornata'') is a species of bird in the family Acanthizidae. It is endemic to southwestern Australia. Its natural habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and b ...

s, red-winged fairywrens,

western spinebill The western spinebill (''Acanthorhynchus superciliosus'') is a honeyeater found in the heath and woodland of south-western Australia. Ranging between long, it weighs around . It has a black head, gray back and wings, with a red band behind its ...

s and

red-eared firetail The red-eared firetail (''Stagonopleura oculata''), also known as the boorin, is a small finch-like species of bird. It occurs in dense wetland vegetation of coastal to sub-coastal regions in Southwest Australia. Its appearance is considered appe ...

References

Great Southern (Western Australia) Important Bird Areas of Western Australia {{WesternAustralia-geo-stub